Boris Kolev, born in the small town of Targovishte, Bulgaria, grew up in the capital city of Sofia. By eighth grade, he had joined JA (Junior Achievement) Bulgaria and participated in the JA Company Program, creating a real company that earned real profits. At just 13 years old, Boris and his team advanced to the Bulgarian national competition; by the time he reached high school, Boris and his teammates were earning awards at the national and regional levels, including third place in the 2005 JA Europe Company of the Year competition. That same year—combining his talent for entrepreneurship with computer coding skills—Boris and several friends created a web design studio called JT Design, named after their JA student company, Junior Team. The next school year, Boris founded, along with his classmates, the ForumsLeague, a full-year amateur football championship, which today is the largest fan sports tournament in Bulgaria. By the time he reached 17, Boris was already a serial entrepreneur.

When he turned 18, Boris registered his first legal company, marketing and public-relations agency JT International, which he formed with two friends from JA. In 2007, at the age of 19, Businessweek named Boris one of “Europe’s Best Young Entrepreneurs,” ranking him third. He was also recognized on the cover of the magazine’s national edition as the youngest successful self-made entrepreneur in Bulgaria.

Boris later pursued a strategy of building offshoot companies while partnering with active, moral, and ambitious JT International team members. Together, they built BlueMark, NetMark, ScentMark, FinalTouch, and GreenMark. Boris also created DigiMark, a mobile software development company. DigiMark was the fastest-growing IT company in Bulgaria in 2014 and ranked in the top three for 2015 and 2016. In less than four years, the company expanded operations to Porto (Portugal), New York, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco. In 2019, DigiMark was acquired by Devexperts, one of the largest fintech and trading software development companies in the world. After the acquisition of DigiMark, Boris created DigiMark Ventures, a micro VC firm that invests in promising Bulgarian social-impact startups. He also founded the DigiMark Foundation, which aims to fight local and global social issues through digital technology developed by volunteers.

In 2009, Boris founded CSR Bulgaria, a national business network for corporate social responsibility (CSR) that unites more than 300 companies, NGOs, media outlets, and public organizations around sustainable development. CSR Bulgaria was formed to bring sustainability thinking to local businesses and help connect and enable collaboration among local non-profits, businesses, and media. CSR Bulgaria organizes corporate trainings, develops corporate CSR strategies, consults non-profits on fundraising, translates books and educational materials, and offers free presentations on CSR and sustainability to universities and the public. It also created the first and still the largest sustainability news internet portal in Bulgaria. The organization built the first CSR Master’s Degree program in Eastern Europe in collaboration with VUZF University and UN Global Compact Network in Bulgaria and is one of the initiators of the national CSR strategy with the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies. Since then, CSR Bulgaria has built CSR strategies for more than 30 companies and introduced impact reporting and non-financial reporting to Bulgarian businesses.

Boris is also a founder of Mastermind Foundation Bulgaria, which encourages and educates the Bulgarian public about self-awareness and personal-development practices. In 2013, Boris was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Bulgaria. In 2014, Boris received a special recognition award from Forbes. Also in 2014, Boris co-founded NutriGen, a biotech startup providing DNA testing and analysis based on partial or full genome sequencing. NutriGen provides personalized health and prevention plans to consumers in collaboration with scientists and geneticists from the National Medical Academy and several other universities. Boris is also a co-founder and investor in the startup nPloy, an innovative mobile job-matching platform, and in Airate, which built world’s first nano fiber window membrane that cleans air pollution. In 2017, Boris was named a FERD’s List honoree.

In addition to his numerous professional accomplishments, Boris played a key role in the development of JA Alumni Bulgaria and JA Alumni Europe. He served as president of the Bulgarian JA alumni organization for six years and grew the student organization from a small group of young people in Sofia to a nationwide organization with six regional centers and more than 600 active JA alumni members. While in this position, he organized a series of entrepreneurship and work-readiness projects for children as well as educational summer camps for orphans and children deprived of parental care.